Morocco’s Islamists, in government but not in power

King Mohammed reacted swiftly to the Arab Spring and the local demonstrations it inspired, introducing reforms that have produced a coalition government with an Islamist prime minister. But has Morocco’s balance of power changed?

“Morocco isn’t a democracy, but the Arab Spring has brought some real progress. All this is a revolution for the country,” said Mustafa Ramid, justice minister in the coalition government, headed for the first time by an Islamist prime minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, and his Justice and Development Party, PJD. Until then, Ramid had been a leading dissenter within the party, demanding political reform as a condition of the PJD running for election. For him, the changes were an unhoped-for advance.

Thousands took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Tangiers and Marrakesh on 20 February 2011, as they had elsewhere in the Arab world. They demanded a new constitution, a change in government and an end to corruption, and they started a movement that took its name from the date of their demonstration. Mohammed VI shrewdly responded with a well-judged speech on primetime television on 9 March offering reforms. Then, on 17 June, he announced a new constitution, under which he has to name a prime minister from the largest party, with the authority to dissolve parliament. He also made Berber an official language beside Arabic. On 1 July a referendum on the draft constitution was approved by 98.5% of voters, with a turnout officially reported at almost 73%. On 25 November the PJD won early parliamentary elections, with 107 out of 395 seats.

The monarch’s fast intervention may have avoided another uprising. but how much has really changed? Benkirane told me back in 2007 that his aims were “freedoms and democracy — but of course within the usual red lines.” The lines have not vanished, even if the press is a little freer, civil society is more vigorous, and people can now speak out about corruption, except cronyism within the palace bureaucracy (makhzen) or the reported quintupling of the royal fortune to $2.5bn over the last decade, through control of phosphate mines.

As part of a coalition, the PJD has only 12 ministers in a cabinet of 31; the economy is run by Nizar (...)

(2) The PJD formed a coalition with the Independence Party (which helped the country win its freedom from France in 1956), the Popular Movement (a party of rural notables) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (of former communists).